From: dannyb@panix.com   
      
   In  Charles Bishop   
    writes:   
      
   [snippepth]   
      
   >[snip-where have all the $Things gone?]   
      
   >> >coin phones,   
      
   >Oddly enough, in the last few weeks, I've seen banks of coin operated[1]   
   >phones, in actual phone booths - the kind you can go into, and sit down   
   >and close the door. There was even a shelf I think. I don't know (forgot   
   >to check) if there were phone books. The first set was in the downtown   
   >courthouse in LA, CA. The second was in the (older) courthouse in Santa   
   >Barbara, CA. No surprise they kept them in such old buildings I guess.   
      
   NYC, especially Manhattan (but also the other four boroughs) still   
   has plenty of street location coin phone kiosks.   
      
   Why? Because... decades ago the NYC gov't Franchise Board (the   
   group that permits things on sidewalks..) approved the placement   
   of advertising on them.   
      
   If you, as say, a barber shop, want to put a clapboard on the   
   sidewalk advertising your business, bzzzzzzt, no can do.   
      
   But you can take out an advert covering the side of the phone   
   kiosk on the corner.   
      
   Hence the various phone companies that operated these pay phones   
   have cheerfully kept them up and lit. They didn't make (and   
   probably lost...) money as a phone appearance, but made plenty   
   in the advertising.   
      
   NOTE: About a year ago NYC made a _major_ change in the franchise   
   arrangement, and these kiosks are transitioning into WiFi bases   
   to cover the area down the block from them [a] (and the apartment   
   windows across the street...). ALSO, they're going to be providing   
   free local phone calls [b].   
      
   [a] NY Telephone/Bell Atlantic/NYNEX/Verizon, or whatever   
   they were known as in 2000 or so, as part of their DSL offering,   
   began placing 802.11b WiFi bases on payphones. If you had   
   a DSL account, you could use the WiFi as well.   
      
   It kind of faded away a year later.   
      
   There was one just a couple of blocks from me and I'd   
   park next to it with my clamshell Mac..   
      
   [b] the setup to restrict the freebies to "local" calls   
   looks to me to be a huge headache, and I woudn't be surprised   
   if they just allow all US and maybe Canoodian calls.. I'll check   
   when I bump into one of the operating units. (There are about   
   a dozen now, with more on the way).   
      
      
   --   
   _____________________________________________________   
   Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key   
   		     dannyb@panix.com   
   [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)